Chapter Twenty
Aideen
I don’t know how I expected to react, but then I’d never actually seen anyone shift.
My friends who were mated to shifters had never invited me over to watch, and I had a feeling it was because they had to get undressed first, and most of my girlfriends weren’t likely to want to share their men’s nakedness with other women.
Shifters, apparently, from my research, had no real issues with nudity at all, but humans…honestly? I got it.
But when it was time for me to see my guys shift, it was anything but a private moment. “Can you do it here, in the house?”
They looked at one another then back at me. “Umm,” Comet said. “We could, but we’d probably break a lot of our collectibles with our antlers, and we wouldn’t be able to move around much.”
“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a reindeer in person, but we are larger than the kind you might have encountered. Why don’t we go to the barn. There’s room there, and it’s a little warmer than outside in the village.”
The dome that covered the village made a difference in the air temperature, but it was still pretty cold outside, and I shivered a little as we walked from the house to the barn.
It was several times as big as the one that housed the guys’ toy shop, and made me wonder how many reindeer did train for Santa’s sleigh.
“Right this way.” Blitz took my arm and led me inside the building, and then I knew why it was so big.
There were no actual stalls or anything like that inside.
Rather, the walls were lined with equipment like you’d find in a gym.
Weights and treadmills and all sorts of things, and the center was wide open with a ceiling several stories high. “This is where we train.”
“And fly. That’s why the ceiling is so high?”
“Yes, but not in January.” Comet unzipped his jacket. “No Christmas magic for that right now. But you can still see our reindeer.”
I couldn’t wait.
They had me sit on a padded exercise bench while they undressed and prepared to shift.
I couldn’t keep my eyes off them. Was it okay to stare?
They didn’t seem to mind. And if we were going to be doing so much more in a little while…
But still, I didn’t want to be rude. “Would you like me to turn away?” I had to ask.
“No.” Dash actually turned in a circle, letting me see all of him. “Not unless you want to. We’re not shy and we will probably be staring at you the moment we get you alone.”
I shivered at the image that presented. “I might be a little shy.”
“As beautiful as you are?” Blitz paused, shirt off and pants unzipped. “You shouldn’t be shy. You have so much to be proud of.”
“Compared to the three of you, I feel like a little gray mouse.”
He dropped to one knee and tipped my chin up. “You’re anything but gray or a mouse. You are as bright and colorful as anyone could wish for. I never want to hear you putting yourself down again. Got it?”
“Yes.” I felt a little embarrassed, but as they continued to remove their clothing, the distraction helped.
And then, with no warning, they began to shift.
From three men who could be pinups in the center of a woman’s magazine appeared three magnificent reindeer.
They loomed over me, long legs holding muscular bodies.
They were nothing like the pictures of reindeer I’d seen who looked a lot more spindly.
Their antlers were great branches, their eyes deep brown, and I wanted to touch them more than anything I’d ever seen. My fingers flexed and I reached out.
The trio of deer approached me, heads bowed solemnly, and I took it as an invitation to explore their forms. Their fur was coarse but also smooth, and I petted one then the next then the third before returning to the first. After a moment, I lost track of who was who, and I made a mental note not to let that happen again.
They were similar but not identical in this form.
Once I’d run my hands over their bodies from head to tail, one of them bumped me with his head, somehow managing to convey that he was offering me a ride.
Scared but thrilled, I threw one leg over his back and climbed on.
The deer, whomever he was, carried me around for a few minutes and then the next came up, and I slid down the first one’s side and climbed on the second.
Then the third. Petting his neck, I climbed off, starting to get sore but dying to keep going.
Before I could decide what to do next, they were shifting back, and all too soon fully dressed. It wasn’t especially warm in the barn, so I didn’t blame them.
“Ready to go home, mate?” Blitz asked, taking my hand. “It’s pretty cold out there.”
“Home sounds good.” It sounded better than good. Before this polar night ended, I would be mated and marked. Would have made love with three men at the same time. “Are you guys nervous?” I asked, expecting them to say no.
“Yes, of course,” Dash replied instead. “We will only have one first time with our mate, and it’s very special. We want to be sure to make it that way for you too.”
Such gentlemen.
My heart was thudding so loudly, I could hardly hear anything outside of my head. But I was going to do this if it killed me. The thought made me laugh and broke the tension once I explained why. They closed in around me as we returned home, and their warmth helped keep the chill away.